I rarely pay attention to them, unless they are advertising something I have already thought about and want kind of specifically. I don't have money to throw around so I am currently subconsciously subdued about spending I think... I see something in a window and I look, maybe... but that's all. I don't look and feel pulled in very often by anything. In fact, the main things I buy are food, books and art materials. Most of which relate directly to my profession and autodidactism. I am hardly ever tempted by adverts that advertise other things, and those ones that seem too good to be true? They are.
I don't watch television (at all) and I only visit specific places on the net by habit... if adverts pop up on there they are irritating rather than tempting. I
really get bugged when I'm looking for something specific on YouTube and I'm forced to watch 30 second adverts at the start each time. My mind sees them, acknowledges them and dispenses of them literally in a moment in most cases. So I don't think I'm very affected at all by advertisement, although in my profession I'm aware of advertising and marketing strategies as well, some of which is achieved best by some pretty sly or simple psychological tricks. One of the most obvious (and annoying) is to make up some lyrics about the thing you advertise and then put it into a song and play it several times. After watching several redlettermedia reviews I know know enough of that horrible UPS advert song to remember UPS, although I will NOT use UPS because they have a reputation for breaking things. So while they might try to brainwash me, I'm a little more savvy than that and accepting their promises at face value. I treat most advertisements this way - by nature I don't trust off the bat, I know they are selling something and no matter how many people are grinning and smiling and how many happy fantasy families they stick in their adverts that the reality is bound to be far less exciting/impressive/reliable/wonderful. Same with anything else - house lettings, holidays, cars... they advertise by making something look so incredible when anyone with half a brain knows it's just not that ****ing amazing. Have you seen those Chinese adverts on Engrish? Even worse. Like a box of tea bags has unabashed slogans on it of how you just can't live without drinking this tea because it's so amazing - it'll give you a new perspective on life or something. It's tea, for crying out loud.
But - advertising does work on a lot of people or they wouldn't spend money doing it.
If you're interested in how companies have tapped into people's unconscious desires to get them to buy things or do things (and just how sly and prevalent and vital it really is in Western society) I totally recommend the multi-part documentary called
"Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis. You can also just find it up on Youtube. You will be amazed and probably a bit spooked, I guarantee.
"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the 'dangerous crowd' in an age of mass democracy. At the heart of the story is not just Sigmund Freud, but other members of the Freud family. This first episode is about Freud's American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays is almost completely unknown today, but his influence on the 20th Century was nearly as great as his uncle's; because Bernays was the first person to take Freud's ideas about human beings, and use them to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations for the first time how they could make people want things they didn't need, by linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Out of this would come a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying people's inner selfish desires, one makes them 'happy' and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming 'Self' which has come to dominate our world today."
Seriously, watch it all.
...And then see if you can ever look at advertising, today's politics and politicians the same way again.
